


The Haunting of Blight Manor

by Greenisher



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Bisexual Disaster Luz Noceda, F/F, Haunting, Luz ain’t afraid of no ghost, Poltergeists: gotta spook em all, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29765460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenisher/pseuds/Greenisher
Summary: "I am absolutely fine!" Luz said, kicking her leg so hard her converse nearly flew off. "Totally A-Okay!" She wiggled again and the floor creaked unpleasantly. There was an unpleasant groan in the building. "I can totally get myself free, totally--" The creaking was joined by another loud crack. Willow panned the camera to follow Luz as she dropped through the floor and landed in a heap on the ground. Luz sat up, holding up both thumbs. "All good!-Best friends Luz, Willow and Gus are the Ghoul Friends, streaming their adventures through haunted houses on YouTube. They’ve been asked to investigate a manor at the edge of town. What could go wrong?
Relationships: Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne/Camila Noceda
Comments: 18
Kudos: 71





	1. Rue

**Author's Note:**

> Ghost hunter AU? GHOST HUNTER AU!

The house was in a large cul-de-sac, but rumours of ghosts meant that almost nobody checked in on it anymore. The lawn was overgrown, the mailbox long knocked over. Its nearest neighbor was currently empty, the residents having left on vacation yesterday. They'd never have a better time to do this.

The door popped open easily enough after less than a minute of fiddling, leading to a doorway thick with dust. Old circulars and mail catalogs were flopped behind the door. "I thought they'd stopped making these," Gus said, peering at a catalog from a stationery company. "My dad has one of these pens from his high school graduation!"

"It's been abandoned a while," Willow said, checking her camera. "Are your mics on?"

"Clipped up!" Gus patted his chest, then winced. "Oops. Gotta remember not to hit the mic."

"Ready to go!" Luz stepped through the threshold, standing in front of the stairs, both arms raised. "This bad boy is ready to get spooky! Hit record, Wil!"

"3, 2, 1," Willow pushed the button for record, aiming her camera at Luz. "And we're rolling."

"Alright!" Luz went into presenter mode, hands on her hips. "This week on Ghoul Friends, we're investigating the mysterious goings on at The Old Burner House! In a survey sent out to Hexside U students, it was listed at number three on the list of most haunted places in Bonesborough!"

"Number three?" Gus waggled his eyebrows as he leaned into frame. "Now we're getting to the really spooky stuff!"

"Give us a run down of the history, Gus!"

Gus cleared his throat, pushing imaginary glasses up his nose. “Robert Burner, Bob to his buddies, was born in Scotland in 1844. He migrated to America and bought land here in California in 1878, and constructed  _ this _ home in 1880."

"It's held up pretty well considering its age," Luz noted, looking around. Willow panned the camera over the house, showing off the interior; bare bricks, wallpaper peeling. "Alright! Tell us about the ghosts!"

"We don't have any complaints about hauntings prior to 1960," Gus explained. "The last Burnerdied out around then and the house was put up for sale. But everyone who's bought it has heard horrible noises at night. Babies crying! People sobbing! PLUS! People have felt a sorrowful presence upstairs, with unidentified figures moving through the halls!"

"So cool," Luz whispered.

"And downstairs in the basement, electronics have stopped working!"

"We'll check that part out last in case our camera stops working," Willow said. 

“Not to mention,” Gus turned on his flashlight under his chin, lighting his face from below. “Rumours of the wolfman! Several frat parties have made trips to the area, only to spot a  _ mysterious figure  _ dressed like a werewolf around the time of the full moon! Hexisde Rugby’s very own Tight Head Prop Boscha reportedly screamed and ran when confronted with the beast!” The camera shook slightly as Willow muffled laughter. “Tight Head Prop is a real term, Willow. We’ve come here not quite at the full moon so we probably won’t be blessed by a visit from Mr. Wolfy, but that won’t stop our investigations!”

“Or any ghosts,” Luz added. “I’m pretty sure ghosts aren’t affected by the full moon.”

“Accounts vary,” Gus said, with a wide smile. “But these ghosts are seen month-round!”

"Alright!" Luz pointed to the open plan living area. "Let's check this place out!"

"Careful," Willow reminded them as Luz and Gus bounded into the next room, Luz a few steps ahead. Neither seemed to hear her as they dashed about, examining the area.

There was a crack as they reached the middle of the room; Luz made a noise that sounded like a baseball in a blender as her foot went straight through the rotten floor, trapping her up to the knee. "Oh no!" Gus cried, running to her, straight through the same patch of exposed floorboards. He let out a startled noise as the wood collapsed under his feet in a cloud of dust; there was a faint slap of a body on something solid. A long pause followed. "I'm okay!" Came a winded voice from the floor below. “Nothing broken! Bones or otherwise.”

"Should I...call an ambulance?" Willow asked dubiously, looking up from the camera to squint through the darkness at the shapes she vaguely recognised as her pals. 

"Nope! No authorities! Not after last time! Eda will kill me," Luz struggled, attempting to pull herself free. "No worries folks, all part of the show!"

Willow stepped closer, using the penlight on her keyring to shine a thin beam of light across the darkened floor, searching for where Gus had fallen through. There was a loud  _ bang _ behind her and she jumped, nearly dropping it, turning swiftly to see Gus leaning up out of a trapdoor he'd thrown open. "Over here! There's stairs to the basement!"

“A trapdoor?” Willow looked over to where Luz was still stuck and made a shrugging gesture. "Need help?"

"Nope! I'm absolutely fine! I'll get out of this myself!" Luz told her firmly, patting the wood surrounding her, looking for somewhere she could put her weight. "Use the spirit box! Let's see what secrets lurk in this old house!"

Gus was already haring back down the stairs. Willow followed, mindful of every creak in case more collapsed. The basement here stank of mildew, the atmosphere so close that it was hard to breathe in deeply. There were exposed wooden beams, the bones of the house itself. Willow frowned as she looked for danger in the dark; black mold, asbestos. Gus made himself busy, going through his backpack of equipment, pulling out a black box that looked like a miniature radio. A spirit box - a device that swept AM and FM frequencies to pick up words from ghosts. It was supposed to make it easier for ghosts to manipulate the airwaves and speak to people; Willow knew it worked by producing fragments of words broadcast across multiple frequencies. A human's brain, innately pattern-seeking, would comprehend those fragments of sound as whatever word they wanted to hear. But it also made Gus happy, so she wasn't about to rain on his parade with her facts.

She looked up at Luz's leg, still dangling through the ceiling, and sighed. "Luz, are you sure you don't need help?" She asked, angling the camera up. 

"I am absolutely fine!" Luz said, kicking her leg so hard her converse nearly flew off. "Totally A-Okay!" She wiggled again and the floor creaked unpleasantly. There was an unpleasant groan in the building. "I can totally get myself free, totally--" The creaking was joined by another loud  _ crack _ . Willow panned the camera to follow Luz as she dropped through the floor and landed in a heap on the ground. Luz sat up, holding up both thumbs. "All good! See! I'm free!"

Willow moved her camera back up to view the two new holes in the ceiling where her friends had fallen through. That wasn't good. 

The room was filled with a horrifying buzz of static as Gus switched on the spirit box. "Oh ghost of this abandoned house!" He called out as Luz gingerly picked herself up. "Uneasy spirit of the darkness! What's up? How're you doing? Wanna chat with us?" The box continued to spit out static, occasional garbled syllables. 

"I heard 'Doug'!" Gus said, eyes wide and full of stars.

"I heard 'No'!" Luz said, scrambling over to the box. 

"I...didn't hear anything," Willow admitted, smiling. Being the straight man to their goofballs was pretty good. 

Gus and Luz leaned into the box, and Willow zoomed in with the camera, examining it. The static buzzed, an incomprehensible set of words, more static. "How are you today?" Luz asked. "¿Cómo estás?" 

The spirit box buzzed more static, and both Luz and Gus looked up, eyes wide. 

"I heard 'a star'!" Gus said, examining it. "Do you feel like a star cuz we're filming you, ghost pal?"

"I heard asar!" Luz said, grinning widely. "Asar un pollos? Are you hungry?"

“Ohhh, a hungry ghost,” Gus leaned into the box. “You want us to bring you food? My budget stretches to McDonald’s.”

Luz squinted at the box, hearing something else. “Was that  _ light _ ?”

“Pretty sure it was Bly,” Gus said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

The box rolled over frequencies, static so loud it made Willow’s teeth itch. Just as she was about to suggest they turn it off, they heard a clear voice through the speaker:  _ GET OUT! _ They looked at each other, silent and still. More static sung and buzzed through the device, and then another voice, androgynous, overcome by noise as though sinking into a sea of sound:  GET OUT!

Willow shuddered, trying to focus the camera on her friends. Luz had jumped straight into Gus who was holding her up, glancing around, terror on both their faces. “Welp,” said Gus. “I’d say that’s pretty great evidence of ghosts.”

“YEP!” Luz dropped out of his arms, legs stiff. “Okay that about wraps out our investigation into the Burner household,”  _ LEAVE THE MANOR _ hissed the speaker in a multitude of voices, emotionless, static overrunning.  _ LEAVE THE MANOR LEAVE THE MANOR LEAVE THE MANOR LEAVE THE MANOR— _

“Time to go!” Gus was hopping up the stairs, holding the trapdoor open. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

* * *

It took a visit to Jamba Juice to calm them down after they’d peeled out of the cul-de-sac in Willow’s beater car, Luz hanging out of the passenger side window to catch any last spooky presences. In Hexside’s outdated media lab, Willow scanned over what she’d managed to capture, adding in audio and effects, while Luz and Gus shared a laptop, checking over their social media accounts.

“‘ _ We’ve got a crazy video for you, coming soon _ !’” Luz looked up. “How much should I reveal?”

“Keep em guessing!” Gus was examining his drink. “Hey, I think the girl who writes fruit fanfic was working today. I’ve got a blueberry/spinach poem on my label.”

“She’s really improving,” Luz checked his drink as Gus pulled the computer back over. “I’d never have thought to rhyme Spinach with touch.”

"I take photos every time I find her food poetry. I’m really hoping she gets em published. An anthology of food fic! Oh, hey, we've got a question from the patreon," Gus said, checking their account. "' _ Luz, how come your moms let you break into old houses? _ '"

"Oh that's easy," Luz pulled the laptop over to tap out a response. "Technically, I only have one mom. But it's only a matter of time til Eda proposes! I've seen the ring! And the adoption papers!"

"That...wasn't the question," Willow said, but didn't push the issue. "Gus, I need you to record the intro for the next episode before we head out."

"I'm on it! I'll use my best announcer voice!" Gus climbed over the chairs between them to flop against Willow. "Ooohhhh, can I narrate the bonus blooper reel?"

"There won't be a blooper reel!" Luz looked up from where she was tapping out answers to their patreon supporters. "Everything we recorded was  _ gold dust _ ! I bet Willow hasn’t cut a  _ second _ of our work!"

"You can narrate the blooper reel," Willow whispered to Gus. She stretched her arms out, rotating her shoulders as she scanned over the timeline in her video editing software, Gus gazing in wonder over her shoulder. "Alright," she decided. "I think this episode is in the can."

"Yet another ghost busted by the Ghoul Friends!" Luz whooped, pumping her arms. "Nice! Upload it, upload it!"

"Upload it!" Gus added, joining in with Luz's chant.

"Upload time!" Willow switched windows to YouTube, finger hovering over the button. "Three, two, one-"

All three called out "UPLOAD!" at the same time, a private little bit between them, a ritual. They crowded around Willow's screen, eager, fascinated.

Nothing happened for a moment, a rainbow spinning where her cursor had been. A loading bar popped up after a second, the green moving just the tiniest fraction of a bit. "Welp!" Said Willow. "Still as slow as ever!"

Luz let out a breath she'd been holding. "I keep forgetting that's not instantaneous."

"I gotta get into computer science and invent a faster internet," Gus groaned. 

"Aw," Luz threw an arm around his shoulders. "But I like your articles so much!"

"Shucks," Gus leaned past her to examine the loading bar as it inched its way up. "I'll keep doing my articles. I could be a polymath!"

"You could," Willow agreed, checking her watch. "I’ve gotta go, I've got class."

"Oh, shoot," Luz slapped a hand to her head. "I lost track of time! I've got math in a few and it's right across campus!"

"Free period for me!" Gus flexed. 

"You can look after the upload in that case," Willow told him, standing up and grabbing her bag to leave. 

"That's a lot of responsibility," Gus rubbed his chin. "Will you help me study for my next bio test if I do? I really need to beat Mattholomule. I'm pretty sure he's paying someone to take his exams for him, and it's driving me crazy! Last time he beat me he--"

"Heelied through the corridors waving a sign that said 'better than Gus' on it," Luz finished. It was a story that had been oft discussed between them, alongside potential revenge ideas. 

"I'll help," Willow agreed and Gus punched the air with joy. 

"Now I know I'll beat him!" He waved them off as they picked up their bags and ran for the door. “Good luck! Have fun! Make good choices!”

“I won’t and you can’t make me!” Luz called back as Willow shook her head.

* * *

The professor was late, or Luz would've been in some trouble as she slid into the room a few minutes after the official lecture start time. The other students in her class all seemed busily engaged in chats with each other; Luz squeezed past several gossiping groups to find a seat at the back. Math was not her strong suit. She'd found this spot to be one where she was rarely picked on for an answer. 

Relaxing in her chair, she glanced around the classroom, looking for familiar faces. As usual, she scanned very quickly over Skara (sat over at the other side of the room with Boscha) and back to the front, eyes lingering on a brown head of hair in the first row. Amity Blight. Somehow, they'd ended up in most of the same classes this year, but had yet to speak more than the couple of sentences they'd shared a few weeks ago when Luz had asked to borrow a pen in psychology. Still, it was hard not to spot the captain of the school rugby team; to Luz, at least, she stood out like there was a spotlight on her, everywhere she went. 

It would be nice to be friends with her. Amity looked like she could be pretty fun.

She'd been thinking of making an excuse to move closer to the front and slide into an empty space beside Amity when the professor finally walked in, arms wide. "Sorry I'm late! I crashed into that guy who heelies everywhere! Papers all over." 

Luz settled back in her chair, ready to let her brain go numb in the face of Math Facts when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, the specific frequency she'd set her texts to. She slid the phone out, just far enough to see the screen, expecting words from mom about needing something to be picked up for dinner, or Eda about needing drinks (she'd been so happy when Luz had turned twenty one). Instead was a single message from an unknown number:

> _ Is this Luz Noceda, the Ghost Hunter? _

As she gaped at the message, trying to work out how anyone who knew about the Ghoul Friends YouTube channel would know her number, a second text message came in:

> _ I have important information about a haunted house you'd be interested in _

And then a third:

> _ I'll pay you to investigate it. _

Well, alright. She could always use extra cash. Luz looked up to make sure nobody was watching. The professor had his back to the class, writing something on the whiteboard. Amity, like most others in the class, was busy making notes. Nobody was looking.

> _ Hi, That’s me! I'm Luz!  
_ _ > How can I help your haunted house? _

> _ You can help by getting to the bottom of things  
_ _ > :) _

Now why did that smiley look ominous? Luz rubbed her head under her beanie in thought. 

> _ Sure!   
_ _ > Just tell us the address and we'll check it out! _

She watched as an address popped up for a house in an area she knew was at the very outskirts of town. As she copied the address and pasted it into Google Maps, her brain did an internal calculation; if this was a prank on them, it would take a while for the cops to show up, and there wouldn't be any neighbours to call them. Which was good. Although they'd become pretty skilled at running from the cops after setting off intruder alarms from a mixture of Eda's tips and bitter experience, it was always best to find places where you could avoid that kind of thing. She nodded to herself, ready to agree, when another text came through.

> _ $500 now, $500 after the completion of your investigation _

Well alright. That was $333 for all of them. That would pay for some new camera equipment. She opened the texts to agree, when another message followed.

> _ Each. _

She swallowed. $1000 in her bank account would go a  _ very _ long way. 

> _ Sure! I'll tell the others and we'll meet you there! _

This couldn’t go wrong, she told herself as she slid the phone into her pocket and looked up at the board to see some strange and incalculable spell written out. “Why are there so many  _ letters _ ,” she muttered to herself, the texts going out of her mind as she sped to write everything down.

* * *

Willow and Gus had both been unsure until Luz mentioned the money. After that, Willow remained somewhat unsure, but Gus was totally in. Willow found herself agreeing just to make sure Gus and Luz didn't run into trouble, but as they jumped into her car and Luz showed her the address, she frowned. 

"What's up?"

"I know the house, that's all," Willow said, carefully switching gears as the car pulled into reverse. She owned an old car, stick shift, tape deck, vinyl interiors, but she took immense care of it. As they pulled out into the highway, she slipped in a Fleetwood Mac tape, passed down from her dads. "I've been before."

"What?!" As the strains of Dreams began to play from the tinny speakers, Luz looked over, mouth wide, hands on her cheeks. "You've been to the haunted house and not told us?!"

"It wasn't haunted when I went," Willow told her, peering over the steering wheel at the line of cars in front of them. They'd need to pass through the middle of town to get there. She calculated how long that would take in her head, trying to guess the state of traffic. Just after rush hour, things would be clearing… "I was last there fifteen years ago, though. Maybe things have changed since."

"Oh man, sweet baby Willow," Luz sighed. "I love seeing baby pics of you. You got any shot at the house?"

To her surprise, Willow's jaw tightened, her shoulders tensed. "Let's not talk about that."

They had to drive for a while to reach the spot. It was set out away from the main area of town, up on a hill that overlooked the suburbs, but set away from other residences, way back from the road. A gate was the first sign they'd made it, and as Willow pulled into the driveway, gravel crunching under tyre, all three of them peered up. The house itself was several storeys high, imposingly built. The stonework was grey and worn, a plant Willow identified as English ivy creeping up a wall. It looked like someone had shoved a castle into a stately home, an architectural nightmare. Luz craned her head up and spotted a stained glass window, a crenellated tower, and the sort of tower she'd expect a princess to be letting down her hair from, if this were a fairy tale. Gus, leaning out of the window of Willow's car, narrowed his eyes at the number of slim windows, the broken statues on the walls. Those had been grotesques, he recognised. Why had they been broken?

There were two other vehicles at the top of the driveway. Willow pulled up next to a sensible looking mint green car, and Luz jumped out before she'd come to a full stop, Gus following. Willow made sure she was parked well before joining them. They were admiring a deep green Porsche. "Man," Luz said. "The second I get money I am buying one of these babies."

"You can't drive," Gus reminded her. "Buy one for me instead."

"I'd  _ totally _ learn to drive for a Porsche."

Willow had walked past them both to look at the custom license plate. She groaned. "Luz, what was the name of the person who requested us here?"

"Oh, Emira." Luz leaned over. "Oh hey! The license plate is 3MIR469! Same person, d'you think?"

"Yep," Willow said, shaking her head. "I do."

As she spoke, the doors of the large house swung open. Stood in the doorway were two figures. The evening was drawing in out here, and they were illuminated by the lights inside the house, lit up from behind like stars. They were of similar heights, one with short hair, the other with a long braid, but both wore identical smiles, matching grey suits tailored to their forms. Willow heard Luz gulp beside her, and said, "Yeah, this is about what I was expecting."

"Welcome," said the gentleman bowing.

"To Blight Manor," finished the lady, bowing with him. 

"Willow," Luz whispered, holding up her beanie to hide her mouth. "Willow I'm... I'm too bi to handle this."

The twins - they had to be twins - strolled down to greet them, in synch. "Hello, hello, I'm Emira," the beautiful woman said, reaching out to shake their hands. "I'm the one who texted you, Luz," she lifted Luz’s hand to her lips.

"And I'm Edric," said the equally beautiful man. "We haven't spoken yet, but I'm sure I'll love getting to know you." He winked. Luz leaned on Willow to stop her legs from collapsing under her, a wide smile on her face as she shook their hands. Gus even giggled bashfully as Edric squeezed his fingers and Emira squeezed his upper arm. Only Willow appeared to be immune. She was staring at the two with tired, mistrustful eyes. The twins squinted at her, Emira seeming to recognise her first.

"Willow...Willow Park, right?"

"Right."

"What?" Edric peered at her, as though trying to picture her younger. "Of course! Little Willow! I haven't seen you since you were much littler! Even littler than now!"

" _ What _ ?" Luz looked over at her friend, mouth hanging open. "You guys know each other?"

"Oh yeah!" Edric threw an arm around Willow's shoulders, and Luz noted the way Willow's eyes narrowed behind her spectacles. "Willow here used to be BFFs with our little sister."

"When we were six," Willow clarified. "Fifteen years ago."

"I bet you were super cute," Luz said, trying to picture it. "Where are the baby pics of  _ that _ ?"

"We've got plenty," Emira told her, winking as she slipped an arm around Luz's shoulders. "Why don't you all come in? We can chat about the assignment." Her other hand pressed to Gus's back. 

"Sounds great to me!" Gus said, happy to be propelled. 

"You good with that, Willow?" Luz asked, noticing her friend's discontent. Willow's arms were folded tightly across her chest, but she nodded and followed, Edric bringing up the rear.

The inside of the manor was beautiful and elegant in a way that screamed money. There was nothing gaudy about the decor; the furnishings were high quality but sparse, leaving vast amounts of space in each room. It didn’t really smell of anything here, Luz noted. Only faintly of cleaning products and dust. "Man, if I had a house like this, there'd be a basketball court right where those sofas are," Gus said, admiringly. "And a private movie theater. Ooohhh, and slides between each floor!"

"We tried to install slides, but nobody would give us a fair quote," Emira said.

"We  _ do _ have a secret indoor pool. You can use it if you find it!" Edric said, with a wink that made both Luz and Gus blush.

"I wouldn't recommend it," Emira said with a laugh. "I can't remember the last time we cleaned it."

"Oh, I'm sure Mitten's used it," Edric mused. "She's gotta do  _ something _ here."

"You have a cat that can  _ swim _ ?" Luz asked, excitement in her voice. "This is amazing! Best job ever!"

The twins looked at each other and laughed. Willow appeared to grow stiffer. 

"Not exactly," Emira said, leading them through a long corridor to a living room. She gestured to a couch, and all three of the Ghoul Friends sat down at once. It was deeply uncomfortable. "Watch out for the furniture," she added. "Our mom picked it out. She was way more into fashion than comfort."

"I can tell," Luz said, grimacing as she shifted. 

"It feels like there's a knee in my spine," Gus whispered, horrified.

"She died a while ago," Emira mused. "I guess we could replace this stuff, but to be perfectly honest, we don't live here anymore."

"Who does?" Luz asked, trying to lean forward.

"Our little sister," Edric said with a shrug. "We asked her to move into the city with us, but she's pretty happy out here."

"Not happy," Emira shrugged. "She's hardly ever  _ happy _ ."

"She  _ says _ she's fine out here," Edric corrected himself. 

"Why d’you guys leave this big house?" Gus asked, looking around. "It's huge!"

"Our place in town is closer to work," Edric said, sprawling onto a chair. "We can't mess around, we've gotta run Blight Industries."

" _ I've _ got to run Blight Industries," Emira corrected him. "I'm the CEO. My brother's my secretary."

Blight Industries. Gus frowned at the name, rubbing his chin. Luz saw him make a note in his phone. She leaned forward, resting her arms on her thighs. "That totally explains how you can afford to pay us for checking your house out! Is it this house? Do you have another?"

"It's this one," Emira nodded. "Our homes in the city are certified unhaunted."

"We went to a specialist for that."

"What kind of things do you see? Or hear? Or sense?" Luz pulled a notebook out of her bag, a pen, getting ready to scrawl notes. "Do you feel things? Smell things?  _ Taste _ them?"

"Taste?" Asked Edric, rubbing his chin. "Can you taste ghosts?"

"Sometimes!"

"Hmm…" he looked around the room, and stuck his tongue out thoughtfully.

"So far, it's mostly hearing things," Emira said, ignoring her brother. "Sometimes seeing. You'll be in a room and suddenly a piece of furniture will be thrown at you. Or you'll hear someone shouting your name, but you're the only one home. I've seen a dark figure once or twice - Ed has too - and we've all felt a cold hand grab our arm when we're alone in the room."

Luz shuddered at that, but wrote down every detail she could. "And do you sense a presence? Like... demonic? Evil? Malicious?"

Both twins looked at each other. "I wouldn't say demonic," Edric mused. 

" _ Hostile _ , perhaps," Emira agreed. "Uptight."

"Real stickler."

"Cold, unloving…"

"Rude," Edric added. "Don't forget rude."

"Absolutely," Emira agreed. "We believe we know the ghost."

" _ Whaaaat _ ." Luz's pen went right through her paper. She leaned in, mouth agape.

"Our mother," Edric said, with a shrug.

"The house was fine, and we didn't experience anything creepy. Not until right after she died." Emira considered this statement. "A couple of weeks, anyway. After we laid her to rest."

"We thought it might be both of our parents," Ed added. "But yelling, throwing stuff, that's not dad’s style."

"He's more the 'ominous dark figures standing over you and rooms going suddenly freezing cold' type. Though that happens too. Just not as often." Emira paused and when she did, all of them heard movement from deeper in the house. Luz felt Guz inhale sharply beside her, and held her own breath, body stiff as she listened. 

The floorboards creaked and shifted, footsteps coming down the hall. Luz reached for Willow's hand, noting that the twins had also paused, both looking over their shoulders.  _ Is this it? _ She wondered. She'd never come fully face to face with a ghost before, only heard things through the spirit box or felt cold patches in rooms.  _ And the camera isn't even running! _

The steps paused by the door to the living room, and next to her Gus swallowed and leaned into her. Someone stepped into view and Luz heard both of the twins exhale as a slim brunette in shorts and a sweater stood in the doorway, golden eyes scanning their group with disapproval. "Emira," she said, "Edric, you're supposed to text me when you're coming over."

"Amity!" Luz said, delighted. She dropped her notebook in her hurry to jump up, half wanting to greet the other girl, half needing to  _ move _ after the intensity of that pause. "It's me! Luz! We have math together! And psychology! And art!" 

Had Amity's ears gone red? Luz decided she was seeing things. Amity took a step back, stopping the greeting, and throwing a look at the twins.

"Hey Mittens. You scared the crap out of us," Edric said, an easy smile on his face.

"Speak for yourself," Emira hopped up. "We brought your pals to check out the ghost stuff going on over here. Are you going to play nice?"

"I'm twenty-one," Amity folded her arms. "You can't order me to play nice with strangers you invited into my  _ home _ ."

"Iro," said Emira. 

"Lyny," added Edric.

Amity glared at both of them. Luz looked over at Willow. "Twin speak," Willow whispered back. 

"Secret twin language," Luz whispered. "Just like in the books!"

"Huh," said Gus, frowning. He made another note in his phone.

"Fine," Amity folded her arms. "There's no ghost here," she said, over the shoulders of the twins. "But if my siblings insist on showing you around, I won't stand in their way." 

She turned on her heel and was starting to walk out when Luz grabbed her hand. "Wait! We'd love to talk to you too!" Amity whipped round to stare at her, looking taken aback. Luz smiled at her warmly, letting go to turn back to the others. Amity held her hands up, staring at them, an odd look on her face. Emira made a noise like a small laugh, hiding it quickly. Edric pretended to cough politely. "Okay! So we've got a potential ghost that hangs out around here. What's the plan?"

"Sleepover and see if it tries to grab us!" Gus punched the air.

"Are you happy for us to investigate?" Luz turned. Amity was still staring at her hands. Luz tapped her shoulder. 

"What?"

"Can we look around? Maybe stay over?"

"Stay over?" Amity looked panicked.

"Absolutely," said Emira. "We'll order dinner."

"A sleepover! Sounds like great fun!" Edric added. Amity stared hard at both siblings, face turning a strange shade of pink. "We won't be here - we've got an early meeting tomorrow, you know how it is." He clapped Amity on the shoulder. "Play nice with your pals, Mittens."

Amity folded her arms tightly across her chest, glaring at her siblings who made a quick escape past her. "We'll deposit the money in your accounts!" Emira called. 

“And send a delivery driver!” Edric added, slipping out after her.

As the sound of the front door shutting came distantly, the group fell silent. Willow was looking anywhere but Amity. Amity was staring down the corridor at where her siblings had left. Gus was typing a list on his phone, and Luz was looking at Amity. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" She asked.

Amity looked around, quickly, startled, wide eyes meeting Luz's and then immediately looking away. "Oh. Right. Listen, if my siblings are paying you, you might as well check the place out. You won't  _ find _ anything. But maybe that'll stop them from telling  _ everybody _ our house is haunted." She gestured around the room, indicating the larger house.

"Give us a tour!" Gus said with a grin, jumping up out of his seat. "Where's the spookiest spot?"

"Nowhere," Amity said firmly. "Because ghosts don't exist." From a floor above, there was a loud creaking noise. All three of the Ghoul Friends looked up, and then back at Amity. "House...settling," she managed to croak out. "That's the house settling."

"I getcha," Luz said, patting her arm. Amity stared at where she'd been patted, a confused look on her face. "So where's the creaking coming from?"

"Would you like drinks? Water? Tea?" Amity was starting to speed walk away in the opposite direction of the creaking. "We've got a wonderful kitchen."

Willow and Luz shared a look. Gus caught up to Amity, matching her stride. She came up to about his shoulder, and there was a look of faint consternation on her face when she had to turn to look up at him. "D'you remember me?" He was asking. "We went to the same high school."

"I remember you being shorter."

"I had a growth spurt. You go to our college right? Luz has talked about having classes with you."

"Yes," Amity looked straight ahead. "We share classes."

"I remember you got a full ride to Harvard  _ and _ Yale," Gus was saying as they turned a corner. "Why'd you choose Hexside?"

"Closer to home," Amity replied through gritted teeth. “I didn’t apply for those. Edric did.”

Behind them, Luz fell in step with Willow, who was looking uncharacteristically grumpy. "We can leave if you want," she said gently, sliding an arm around her shoulders.

"I know we can," Willow said, reaching up to squeeze her hand. "Nothing's forcing me to be here. I promise."

"Amity is the kid you fell out with when you were little?"

"She called me names for falling behind in class," Willow frowned. "My dad always said that being so concerned with the academic ability of a first grader just reflected sadly on her. But it really hurt." 

Luz rubbed her back. When she'd moved here as a teenager in the long summer between middle school and high school, kids had  _ still _ been making fun of Willow. She recognised that insult; Boscha had been calling Willow that for a long time. Most students had stopped once they'd hit high school and Willow had found her stride - the most beautiful flowers were the latest to bloom, and Willow was living proof of that - but Boscha had kept it up for a while. The seeds of that insult had started with Amity Blight. "You're smart and beautiful and you can kick all their asses," Luz whispered into her ear, and Willow cracked her first smile since they'd pulled up.

"My dads were pretty pleased we stopped hanging out anyway," she confided. "Apparently her mom was super rude to them. Weirdly homophobic."

"Gross," Luz stuck out her tongue.

Willow giggled. "If she  _ is  _ the ghost haunting this place, she's got plenty of reasons to be mad."

"Oh!" Luz giggled too, thoughts on the twins, how they'd flirted with all three of them. She felt herself flush. They  _ had  _ been cute. "Do you think she knew about the twins?"

"Almost definitely," Willow agreed. " _ And _ -"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off as they reached the kitchen. It was wide enough that it could've fit the first floor of Luz's house inside, with a marble island in the center. Gus was sat atop it, drinking a long glass of water. Amity had her back to a wall, looking under siege as she watched them. "Wow," Luz said, stepping into the cavernous room. "Everything's so...white!" She examined the walls, the counters. "It looks like nobody's cooked here for weeks. You must be great at cleaning, Amity!"

Amity looked at her feet. "Yep." 

Luz and Willow joined Gus at the kitchen island and Luz pulled out her notes. "Okay. So we know there's spooky noises. Edric mentioned patches of cold. And they'd heard people shouting their names. Hey, Amity?"

Amity looked up, as though surprised to be addressed. "Yes?"

"Do more spooky things happen at night or during the day?"

"Night." She paused. "Or that's when the twins  _ insist _ they've heard things."

"Awesome!" Luz checked her notes again, figuring out a game plan. 

"Sleepover!" Gus cheered. 

"We need to make sure Mittens is comfortable first," Luz reminded him.

"My name is  _ Amity _ ," came the muttered response from the far wall. 

"Amity! Are you comfortable with us staying over?" Luz turned her bright smile on her, leaning over. "We can get in our PJs, watch movies til late at night, scan the house and get some shut eye! What d'you say?"

"And do you have a secret movie theater?" Gus asked. "I asked the twins but they were inconclusive. And flirtatious.  _ Strangely _ flirtatious."

"They do that," Willow assured him.

"Why do you ou keep talking about sleeping over?Did any of you even bring pyjamas?" Amity asked, an eyebrow raised. 

"Oh! Yeah! ...no," Luz admitted. "In that case, what if we just hang out here til it's late and  _ then _ check things out?"

"Heck yeah!" Gus hopped off the island. "Maybe we can look for the secret pool!" 

Willow opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. She was frowning deeply. "Could everyone be quiet for a moment?"

They fell silent. Luz looked around, listening hard. Gus had both hands cupped behind his ears. Willow was staring out of the kitchen and into the corridor. Amity, she noticed, had pulled into herself, staring at the floor, hugging herself. There was a look of sheer misery on her face. Luz got up to go to her and see what was wrong, but froze in place. She could hear something.

Light at first, but growing closer. The distinct sound of a person walking. Luz hopped down from the island, coming closer to Amity. "Is someone else living here?" She asked. That would explain the creaks and noises the twins weren't expecting. A secret boyfriend? A secret girlfriend? Someone trapped in the walls? Amity shook her head and shut her eyes tight.

The footsteps grew louder under they were just outside the doorway. Luz could see the floor moving under the weight of a person, but couldn't  _ see _ anything that could be making that noise. The footsteps echoed through them, making the hair on her arms stand up straight. Luz shivered, reaching out. Gus was standing next to Willow, a protective hand on her shoulder. Luz reached out and her fingers curled around Amity's wrist. None of them spoke. 

A great coldness filled the room, as though they'd gone from California to Alaska in microseconds. When Luz exhaled, she could see her breath fogging in front of her face. Amity was stiff beside her. 

The lights popped and broke, casting them in shadow. Gus cried out in alarm. Nobody spoke as Willow said something to him that Luz couldn't catch. She heard the rustling of cloth moving up ahead, a gentle  _ click _ , and was immediately blinded by Willow's flashlight. "Augh!"

"Luz?" Willow called out. "That you?"

"S'me!" She held up the wrist she was holding. "And I've got Amity!"

"I've got Willow!" Gus called back. "Or Willow has me!"

"At least the footsteps have stopped," Willow breathed with relief. She rubbed her arms, hooked one through one of Gus's to bolster herself, worry reading in every line of her face.

"It was just the house settling," Amity said, eyes downcast. Luz let go of her hand and ran to Gus and Willow. Behind her back Amity flexed the hand that had been held, watching as the fingers opened and closed. "It was the house settling," she repeated, the ghost of body heat on her skin. "Just the house. Just the house."


	2. Single Ladies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ghoul Friends consider the haunting, before deciding to swing back into action and explore the haunted house. Amity finds herself giving a house tour to these lunatics. It is scientifically impossible to be murdered while listening to Beyoncé. Gus does a crime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Owl House tumblr](https://whatisurowlpolicy.tumblr.com).
> 
> This fic should be updated every Friday morning, GMT.

Luz jumped as a loud noise, the thudding of drums split the heavy air. She held her breath, feeling flight or fight run through her, curling her fingers into fists, prepared to punch a ghost right in its ghost face. And then frowned as she recognised the first few beats. "Is that- is someone playing Single Ladies?"

Gus held up his phone. "It's scientifically impossible to die while listening to Beyoncé," he asserted with an immense amount of confidence about something that sounded  _ so _ easy to disprove. "The vibes are just all wrong for being murdered!"

"We're not going to be murdered," Willow murmured through the darkness. She moved to examine the light switch, hesitating by the hallway before resolutely stepping over the threshold of the kitchen, her jaw set and eyes narrowed behind her round glasses. When nothing happened to her, no ghouls in the darkness, no hands grabbing her, no screaming banshees, she took a few more steps into the dark hall, almost disappearing as black night swallowed her, claiming her. "I can't get any of the other light switches to work," she called back. "I think you've got a power cut."

"I'll check for a circuit breaker," Gus galloped after her using the light of his phone screen to guide him, Beyoncé fading down the hall as he did.

"You okay?" Luz asked Amity, grabbing her wrist again. 

Amity stared at the hand on her wrist, tugged her arm away after a baffled moment. "I'm fine. It's just a power cut."

Luz pulled her hat down a little further over her ears, thoughtful. It hadn't  _ felt _ like just a power cut. She'd seen the movement of the floorboards, heard the creak of something with physical weight walking through the old house. "Okay," she said, mostly to put a pin in the conversation. No good going round in circles. "What d'you normally do when there's a power cut?"

"First time."

"Really?" Luz gingerly picked her way across the dark kitchen, looking around. "We've had a couple. Our apartment is pretty old. Usually we break out the candles and play board games." When she turned back to Amity, her smile was warm. "You get the candles and I can get a game!"

"We...don't own any board games."

"I've got a Scrabble app on my phone," Luz held up her old Android, the screen cracked from years of misuse. "Wanna play?"

It took Amity a few seconds to know if she was serious. "No." 

"Monopoly? Ticket to Ride? Risk?" Luz swiped through her phone. "Ooh- I’ve got a PDF of the Player’s Handbook if you wanna try Dungeons and Dragons?"

“No. Thank you.” Amity crossed to one of the counters, groping for a drawer handle. She pulled it open and patted about, unfamiliarly, before locating a candle and lighting it. “Better.”

“Agreed.” Luz came in closer. In the dim light of the candle, Amity looked uncertain, even small. They made eye contact and Luz watched the other girl shut her worried expression down, closing herself off, moving her face to neutral. She wanted to talk to her, to draw herself out of her shell again. She wanted to make Amity smile, really smile. 

“Hey,” she said, and immediately ran out of ideas of what to say. Amity quirked an inquisitive eyebrow, waiting for her to go on. “So...you don’t believe in ghosts?”

“I do not.” Amity said, voice firm.

“Have you ever been somewhere really spooky?”

“I  _ live _ somewhere super spooky,” Amity murmured. "Allegedly."

Darn. That was a good point. Everything else went out of her head, conversation starters parachuting out the emergency exit. Luz was running out of things to talk about, something that  _ never _ happened. She rubbed the back of her neck, tried a different hyperfixation. “What about cryptids?”

“I don’t believe in those either.”

“Really?” She took a deep inhale. There was a scent of faint vanilla in the air, something pleasant emanating from the candle. “I’d love to see Bigfoot sometime.”

“ _ Bigfoot _ .”

“Yeah. And Mothman.” Amity didn’t respond. She stared at Luz in that locked down way of hers. Luz scrambled, flatfooted, through this awkward set of moments, feeling as though she was watching herself fail and powerless to stop it. “Do you know them? They're super cool. Mothman comes from West Virginia and there's a theory that he's a mutated owl and he brings prophetic dreams about calamity, and Bigfoot of course is a big mountain friend who leaves huge tracks, and they've found what could be his DNA but most Bigfoot artifacts are from bears apparently--”

_ (Why couldn't she stop talking?) _

“I've...heard of them,” Amity said, looking down at the candle. “Listen, Luz-”

Whatever she’d been about to say was cut off as the lights in the hallway sprang into life. She jumped back, nearly dropping the candle, a tiny spatter of melted wax hitting the floor; Luz reached out and steadied her without thinking, peering out of the room, waiting for whatever presence had just made itself known to appear. 

They heard what it was before they saw it. A faint strain, like a guitar in the distance. “Is that…” Amity stepped forwards, brow knitting in concern. "Flawless? The remix?"

Luz exhaled a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding as Gus ran back into the room, Beyonce still blasting from his phone. “I found the breaker!” He said, triumphant. “Looks like all the switchy...flippy... _ thingies _ inside were flipped the wrong way!”

"Thingies  _ is _ the technical term for them," Willow said, following close on his heels.

"So I just kept pushing buttons til everything worked out! No power cut! Might not even be supernatural!"

Hyperaware, Luz noticed the way Amity’s shoulders seemed to relax at that confirmation.  _ Now _ , she thought idly, _ why is someone who doesn't believe in ghosts so happy about that? _

* * *

None of them wanted to stay much longer after that, and Amity was only too happy to show them the door. Bundling into Willow’s car, they peeled out of Blight Manor's driveway faster than was strictly necessary, Destiny's Child absolutely slamming through the speakers until the broken down car seemed to thrum with it. Luz turned round in the backseat to watch Blight Manor recede into the distance, eyes searching for it long after they'd left. None of them spoke for a minute, deep in their own thoughts. They drove in a tense silence for five, ten minutes, before Willow asked, “Does anyone want to get something to drink?” 

And that had sounded like the best idea ever.

Secret Room was never full, and while it was absolutely gross, covered in graffiti, with a terrible selection of drinks, it was conveniently placed in the center of town and everything was cheap. The food wasn’t bad, if you ignored the dismal grade in the window from the health inspector, and nobody tended to listen in on your conversations about illegal stuff because they were busy plotting their own crimes. It’d become one of the Ghoul Friends’s favourite hangouts. Top three, at least. 

"This is a fake ID," the scrawny brunette behind the bar said, examining the card he'd been handed with a skeptical eye.

"Hey! No way!" Gus leaned on the bar, trying his best charming smile. "Why would I have a fake ID! Their IDs weren't fake," he gestured at Willow and Luz. "And I'm with them! They're twenty-one, and so it follows, by  _ logic _ , that I am  _ also _ twenty-one."

"Yeah," said the bartender leaning in, his loose tank top showing the intricate tattoo of a vine of roses that stretched over his chest and shoulders. "Except I went to school with you. It's me, Jerbo. I know you're nineteen, Gus. And I know your name's Augustus Porter, which would be on _your_ _legal ID._ This says Gus Gusington in the name field!"

"Ah…um. Hi Jerbo! Would you believe I was never actually skipped a few grades and have been the same age as you guys the whole time? And I...changed my name?"

"I absolutely would not."

" _ Oh no _ ."

Luz ignored the series of mistakes Gus was currently making behind her, focusing on the notes they'd managed to piece together. The Hitachino in front of her with the owl on the label was zingy and lemony-fresh. Opposite her, Willow was frowning at her camera, a pint of stout next to her elbow. "Where do you think we go from here?" Luz ventured, unwilling to take anymore quiet.

Willow looked up, biting her lip in thought. "It's a tough one. It's great to finally have hard evidence of a haunting but…"

"Stuff's whack, yo!"

"Yeah," she looked up over Luz's shoulder to where Jerbo was cutting up Gus's fake ID and Gus was barely holding back tears. 

("Jerbo, no! I spent a  _ bad _ amount of money on the materials for that card!"

" _ You _ made it?"

"It took me a whole afternoon!")

"I knew Alador and Odalia were dead," Willow continued. "But I didn't think they were...you know, haunting stuff. They don't seem like prototypical ghosts."

"What were they like?" Luz leaned forward, interested. The image she had in her head of the Blight parents was of a middle aged Edric and Emira. And honestly?  _ Nice. _ "Anything like the Blights we know?"

"No," Willow waved Gus over as he left the bar with a frown and a soft drink. "Jerbo went easy on you, huh?"

"He sure did," Gus settled glumly between them with a pint glass filled with lemonade. "He was definitely grouchy I didn't recognise him. You guys talking Blights?"

"Yep," Luz leaned on her elbow, taking a sip from Gus's glass. "I didn't know them."

"Oh yeah," Gus waved her off, pulling his drink to safety. "I guess you moved into town the summer after they died, huh?"

"Around then," Willow confirmed, and turned back to Luz. "Odalia and Alador kept to themselves, really. They were always smartly dressed. And I know they tended to keep Ed, Em and Amity like extensions of themselves. They came to school wearing matching outfits all the time, and they all had to do the same activities. Ballet, etiquette lessons, horseback riding…And their grades had to be top, top of the class in every subject or else. I think Ed and Em set records for academic achievements."

"I'm stuck on ballet," Luz admitted, trying to stop picturing either of the Blight twins leaping across a stage in tight clothing and failing.

"What's Jerbo up to these days anyhow?" Gus asked, squinting over Luz's shoulder. "I  _ bet _ he'd let me use one of my IDs here if I could befriend him…"

Willow gave the long suffering smile she always gave when keeping her friends on track turned into herding cats. "Either way," she said, "They were weird, and old fashioned, and homophobic, and rude, and put too much pressure on academics, and definitely not nice people, but I wouldn't have expected them to be haunting their kids."

"If they  _ were _ haunting their kids," Gus said, eyes still on Jerbo, "They'd be haunting Edric and Emira too. But their place slash place _ s _ are ghost free. It's just the big house."

"I wonder why Amity hasn't moved out?" Luz took a thoughtful sip of beer, thumb rubbing over the red owl on the label. She thought back to Amity, who'd looked so fearful. What was she hiding? What was going on? "If her mom and dad were as rich as everyone makes them out to be, she probably got left more than enough to get her own spot like Ed and Em."

"Might be being held in trust?" Gus suggested. "My dad set a provision in his will that if he dies I can't touch any of his stuff til I'm 25."

"That restriction would only have been applied to Amity, in that case," Willow pointed out. "Edric and Emira bought their places and started working at Blight Industries right out of high school. They're only about 23, 24 or so."

The murmur of other drinkers in the room overtook their conversation as they fell into thought. The bar itself was smaller than most places in Bonesborough, with a distinct  _ No Cops _ vibe. The floors were sticky with spilled drinks, and behind the counter was a collage of banned customers, mostly made up of photos of Eda, though Luz was sure she’d spotted a candid of Bump in a Hawaiian shirt there too. A few tables were occupied, and she could see a few faces they knew. Eileen was attempting to play Viney behind them at the pool table. As usual, Viney was casually setting up trick shot after trick shot, destroying her. Luz focused on the taste of her drink, listening to the faint knock of pool balls rolling over the baize of the pool table, the soft  _ thunk  _ as pool cues made contact. 

"Maybe it's haunting her specifically?" Gus suggested, glancing at the bar over his shoulder. Jerbo had his back to them when he checked; he casually poured some of Luz's beer into his lemonade. 

"But why her?" Luz asked, chin on her hand. "And not the twins?"

"The twins were always a little more chaotic than anyone anticipated," Willow grinned briefly, some well buried memory surfacing. "Whereas Amity tended to do what her mom told her. She was pretty terrified of her. Odalia could be trying to keep control of her favourite."

"Bleak." Luz poured a little more of her beer into Gus's drink casually, using his straw to mix the two into a shandy where Jerbo couldn't see. "A lot of ghosts spring up from people who died uneasily. Do you think that's it? Maybe she died with regrets."

"Could be?" Willow drank her drink, pretending to stand up and check her jacket on one of the other chairs to fully block Jerbo's view as he turned round. "I know they died in a car accident, but not much else."

"That might be it," Luz ran her fingers through her hair, sipping her horrible beer and lemonade mix. "But if they died in a car accident, wouldn't they still be haunting the stretch of road where they died? That's how it usually happens. You know the stories where someone picks up a hitchhiker, talks to 'em, and then turns around to see they're gone?"

"Maybe they died in the driveway, or drove into the house?" Willow mused. "It's on the property...that should count. We'll have to find out a bit more."

"He's coming over," Gus hissed, and proceeded to gulp his drink down. Willow nodded to Jerbo just as Gus finished and turned with a smile. "Howdy Sheriff Jerbo!"

"You seem awful jolly for someone who only had a lemonade," Jerbo observed, eyes narrowed as he picked up Gus's empty glass.

"I just love lemon-" he hiccuped. "-ade. Lemonade!"

"Hmmm," Jerbo narrowed his eyes at both Luz and Willow. Willow shrugged. Luz gave him her best impression of innocence. 

"Why would we break any perfectly rational laws that totally follow worldwide convention and aren't at all archaic and based on puritanical systems of power?" Gus tried for puppy dog eyes, and hiccuped again, ruining it. 

“You’re lucky I don’t feel like disrupting your,” he gestured to all of them. “Whole thing.”

“Do you know anything about ghosts, Jerbo?” Luz asked.

“Did a ghost turn your beer into a shandy?”

“Uh,” Luz took a deep gulp of the drink, speaking around a mouthful of liquid. “If I drink it fast enough you can’t prove it!”

“You’re all the worst," he sighed, but he had no inclination to pursue it. Instead he moved to the snooker table to watch Viney play.

They waited for Jerbo to step away, shaking his head, before getting back to their conference. Luz leaned in. “What if it’s a poltergeist? Do we know what gets rid of poltergeists?”

“Salt circles?” Gus mused. “I think it’s slug rules.”

“Just as slimy, right?”

“That’s ectoplasmic entities.” 

“That’s my research dude,” Luz said fondly, leaning up to rub his head. “ _ So _ tall and so smart.”

“Handsome too,” Gus agreed. 

Willow was thinking this over, arms folded. “A poltergeist does fit the bill,” she agreed. “But aren’t they usually...not a dead person? Just negative energy?”

That was a good point. Luz considered this carefully. “But we saw it move the floorboards, and it definitely destroyed the lights. Everything else fits, aside from it turning up right after Odalia died.” 

“I hate to play the skeptic,” Gus cut in, “But did we  _ actually  _ see any of that?” He shrugged at Luz’s frowning face, something only a man with a heart of cold should have been able to do. “I’ll admit, I heard creaks, and I  _ thought _ I saw the floorboards moving. But that could easily be written off as a trick of the eye. And when I checked out the circuit breaker, the main switchy things were flipped. That could just be a surge.”

“A creepy surge,” Luz said, frowning. "A creepy, coincidental surge."

“Here's my theory! The house is extremely ugly,” Gus spread his hands on the table. “Now, I don’t know a lot about architecture, and hopefully I can forget what I already know, but...stands to reason a house that’s that much of an affront to good taste has really terrible hodge-podge insides too. Maybe their electrician just hated them and didn’t wire the house properly?”

“Amity said this was her first power cut,” Luz frowned. “And I believe her. She didn’t seem to know what to do.”

All three sat in silence again, each chewing over their own thoughts. This time, Willow was the person to break it. “Maybe we should go back again tomorrow?” 

* * *

"Oh," Amity said, with the exasperation of a homeowner spotting groundhogs in their freshly manicured lawn the next afternoon as she opened the door to see all three of them there with backpacks. "You're back. I wasn't expecting you."

"We fueled up and we're ready to go!" Luz pointed to her backpack, grinning widely. "I've got so much salt in my backpack! I love your socks, by the way. Orange, pink and white? That's a cool pattern!"

"Uh...huh," Amity looked at her lesbian pride adorned feet and back up at the Ghoul Friends, her arms folding over her chest. "If you're here to check out the ghost, you don't have to. You can just say you did. I'll tell Emira to pay you regardless."

"Hey!" Gus leaned over Luz, resting his arm on her shoulder, with confidence he hadn't had in the Secret Room earlier. "What we saw was  _ definitely _ a ghost."

"If we investigate it and give Emira a full report - with video! - surely she'll stop asking ghost hunters to stop by. Right?" Luz gave her a winning smile, a pair of fingerguns. "That way you only have to deal with us, and not the next group Em pays!"

Amity considered this for a few long moments,  _ weirdos in my house _ vs  _ weirdos in my family _ compared as though they were a feather and a heart on a set of scales, calculations to estimate which of the two parties would bother her the most for the longest plain on her face. "Fine," came her final response. "Only to make sure Team Rocket stops getting involved." She turned on her heel, striding deeper into the house. Luz stepped in after her first, ducking into the darkened home close behind her, gesturing to the others to follow. 

“How long has this house been here?” Gus asked, taking his shoes off at the door and sliding on his socks after them.

“Twenty-five years,” Amity said, distantly. “My parents built it when their company took off.”

“That explains  _ so much _ .” Gus muttered. 

Luz caught up with Amity, sliding her hands into her pockets, attempting a casual stride. “Soooo!" She began, less casual. Why did all of her conversation attempts fall flat on Amity? "How was everything after we left last night?” 

“Fine,” Amity replied quickly, a cold edge in her voice. “Normal. No ghosts.”

“Not even a little one?”

“Nope.”

"Not Caspar? The friendly ghost?"

"No."

"Not his bad and smelly uncles?"

"What? No."

"No sign of Slimer?"

"Are you seriously just naming ghosts from movies?"

“Maybe. But that’s good you haven't seen any. Last night was kinda intense.” Luz paused leaning into a side room filled with trophies. The metal of most of them was tarnished enough to be visible at a glance, and dust stood several centimeters thick on the shelves. “You’ve got a lot of accolades. Kudos!”

“None of them are mine.” Amity stopped in the hall, looking back at the group. “Where...exactly…did you want to start?

“The kitchen! That was the site of the paranormal activity last time,” Luz nodded to herself, striding in the direction she remembered it being in. She hesitated halfway down the corridor, and turned back. “Wait, which way is it? This place is kind of a labyrinth. You got any red string?” Amity shook her head and stalked past her, leading the way.

The kitchen was nicer in the day than it had been in the evening. The windows were floor to ceiling, showing the rolling gardens of the Blight Estate. There was an orchard towards the back, and the sky was beginning to stain pink and orange in the late afternoon, soft light seeping in and drowning the kitchen in a warm glow. The tiled floor and counters were all white and marble; Gus slid across it in his socks while Willow walked over to the windows to peer through them.

Amity had retreated again, back against the wall, arms folded. As Gus and Willow examined the room, she closed her eyes. Luz observed this briefly, before breaking away from the others and coming to lean against the wall next to her. Last time, when whatever it was had happened, there'd been something that had looked like panic in the other girl. Naked fear. Now she was clearly unhappy, closing off, bracing herself for some unpleasant event. "Hey," Luz waved, wanting to interrupt her thoughts. "Can you play a game with me?"

"What?" Amity opened an eye, looking the very pinnacle of unamused. "Why would I--"

"Can you name five things you can see?" Luz asked, cutting her off. She smiled widely. "Just five!"

"Your dumb hat."

"That's one," Luz took off her beanie, a pang of self-consciousness in her chest. She held it between her hands. "What else?"

Amity's eyes slid to the ground. "My socks."

"Yeah, they're cute. Three more!"

"Hmm," the other girl shrugged. "I suppose, my arms. The floor. My jeans."

"That's five!" Luz leaned comfortably against the wall, offering her a smile. "Can you name four things you can touch?"

"What is this game?"

"Just humor me."

There was a long silence. Amity finally uncrossed her arms and tugged on the bottom of her shirt. "This," she said. Luz held out her beanie. "Your dumb hat," she said, taking the edge of it between her thumb and forefinger. She kept it, holding it in one hand. Reaching up with her free hand, she touched her hair, then her nose. "Hair and skin. That's four."

"Right!" Luz grinned at her, didn't try to take her hat back. She ran her fingers through her newly bare hair, touseling it. "Now, what are three things you can hear."

"You, obviously."

"Obviously," Luz agreed.

"I can hear your friend pacing around."

"He does like to pace."

She didn't speak for a moment, long enough that Luz worried she'd abandoned it. "The wind outside. It's picking up a bit."

"Oh yeah?" Luz leaned in, listening hard. "Oh, yeah! I can hear it too! That little whistling noise, right?"

Amity's cheeks flushed. "It's normal noise," she said, almost defensive. "The wind just seems louder sometimes in this house."

"Sure! I hear it at our house a lot too. It's always nice to get all tucked up and listen to the wind just zoom around outside. Added rain's even better!" Luz lay a hand comfortably on her shoulder. Amity turned to stare at it, hard. "Well, what about two things you can smell?"

"What? Are you asking me if you smell?"

"Just in general! Things around the room."

"I…" She seemed to want to say something. But shook her head, as though deciding to get it over with. "I can smell lemons. And I can smell," she gave Luz a sideways look. "Coconut? Is that your hair?"

"Good nose! Okay. One last one." Luz held up a finger. "What's one thing you can taste?"

"Why are you asking me weird questions?" Amity started to fold her arms again, and remembered she was holding Luz's hat. She pushed it into the other girl's chest. "I am not telling you that."

"It's supposed to be, like, your sandwich for lunch and stuff," Luz said with a tiny shrug, keeping her warm expression, welcoming smile. “Something you’ve eaten.”

"Why do you want to know what I eat for lunch?"

"Oh, secret, huh?" Luz tapped her nose. "I gotcha!" Amity was shaking her head, but she looked a little less tense. That was good. She patted her shoulder, turning back to the other Ghoul Friends. “Should we check out the rest of the house?”

“Yeah! I wanna see how many interior design sins took place here,” Gus rubbed his hands together. "Maybe the house was built over a mass grave of Better Home catalogues!"

“I live here, remember?” Amity asked, voice icy.

“I forgive you. You didn’t decorate,” Gus replied with a wide smile. 

Willow shook her head, stepping on ahead and down the long, cold looking hall. Gus bounded after her, his socked feet sliding on the laminated floors. Luz paused at the doorway, waiting for Amity. “Show us around!” She called, reaching out. Amity drew her shoulders up to her ears, face red. 

“It’s a standard house.”

“I...It’s pretty big.”

“It’s not  _ that _ big.”

“You have a princess tower,” Luz pointed up, face comically surprised. “Like...for princesses! Up there! And a secret pool somewhere! That’s a big house!”

“There’s plenty of bigger houses.” Amity slunk past her down the hall. “This one's just...larger than you’re used to.”

“I’m used to a two bedroom apartment above a pawn shop,” Luz told her, laughing just a little at her naked privilege. “My place has four whole rooms. Your place has like, a hundred rooms!”

“It’s a simple eight bedroom home,” Amity muttered. 

“How many bathrooms do you have?” Gus called back.

She stared at him, as though wondering if this were a trap. “Six.”

“I’m gonna use all of ‘em,” Gus told Willow, matter of factly

“You are  _ not _ ,” Amity hissed, running to catch up with him. Gus took off at a sprint, the girl following close behind. Luz speedwalked to catch up with Willow, draping an arm around her shoulders.

“Do you remember any of this place?”

“I know where Amity’s room is,” Willow said humming with thought. “Up in the tower. I think Edric and Emira had most of the west part of the house to themselves. I’m not sure where Odalia and Alador were. The second floor, I think?”

“Wow,” Luz tried to muster up some jealousy around having a house this size, but found she couldn’t. When she’d been a really small kid, scared of the dark, her mom and dad had always been close by. And after that, mom and Eda had always been in the next room, ready to run to her if she needed them. The idea of being here alone sent a rough pang of sympathy through her chest. She pushed a hand through her hair before pulling her hat back on. She left it on for a beat, but felt insecurity rear its head again; she took her hat off again and shoved it into the pocket of her olive jacket.

Willow eyed Luz's fiddling and said, firmly, “I like your hat.” 

“It’s bad etiquette to wear a hat indoors,” Luz said, half-smiling. “But...thanks.” 

Willow shook her head, frowning. "She might be sad and broody. But that doesn't give her license to hurt you. I'm gonna tell her off."

"Nah," Luz said, but her smile grew a bit further. She offered Willow her elbow instead, and they linked arms, coming down the corridor together.

When they caught up to Amity and Gus, Amity was writing out  _ Guest Use only Guests can ONLY use  _ **_this_ ** _ bathroom  _ on a post-it note while Gus laughed. She slapped the note to a door, ears red. Gus laughed harder. “Why is it such a big deal?” 

“I’m only putting up with  _ you _ to stop those  _ clowns _ from sending more in here,” Amity slapped a post-it note that said  _ GUEST _ in jagged sharpie letters to Gus’s chest. He giggled harder. “Stop finding this funny!”

“Children,” Willow shook her head. "Can we act like adults?"

“Don’t worry, we’ll behave,” Luz tried to reassure both of them, looking between Amity and Willow, before giving Gus a pleading look. “Or we’ll try.  _ Right _ ? We’re all friends here!”

“We are  _ not _ friends,” Amity said, teeth gritted. 

“But we can be,” Luz said, smiling at her. Amity stopped baring her teeth and looked away. Gus took the sharpie from her loose fingers and crossed out the GUEST on the post-it attached to his chest, replacing it with FRIEND written in his beautiful cursive instead. 

“Buddies!” 

“I’ll show you the basement first,” Amity said, turning on her heel to walk away, the tips of her ears scarlet. 

The basement was not as creepy as they’d hoped it would be. It was cavernous and large, but apparently unused, bar a small washing machine and dryer in the corner. The floor and walls were white concrete, and it looked unfinished, out of odds with the rest of the house. “Here’s the breaker,” Gus called, pointing to a box on the wall. “I found that one the other night. Dad says they’re always in basements or the garage.”

“The garage is unavailable.” Amity told them, as though it were a broken down theme park ride.

“So it’s here instead,” Gus tapped his temple. “Process of deduction. I told y’all I should go for that PI license.”

“That’s a horrifying thought,” Amity turned on her heels, walking quickly up the stairs. When they didn’t immediately follow, she paused by the door and looked at them. “Are you coming?”

“Sure!” Luz followed her with that bright, warm smile. Amity turned very quickly, nearly walking straight into the door frame. She shrugged it off, walking quickly through the doorway. They followed her up a set of cold stairs, a bare hallway. This felt alien to Luz; when a person stepped through the door of her mother’s apartment they were bombarded with colours, decorations, photos of family. Blight Manor gave the impression of being carved completely from a single piece of marble, with no warmth to be found anywhere. 

This changed at the top of the stairs. “Huh,” Willow said, adjusting her glasses. “I don’t remember that being there.”

“It was added later,” Amity said, and Luz noted that this was the first time she’d spoken to Willow directly.  _ Rude _ . 

They were talking about a large canvas high on the wall of the second floor. It was painted in classical style. A man and a woman were pictured, the woman sat upon an ornate chair, the man stood slightly behind her, his hand on its back. Two small children, almost identical but for their moles being placed on different sides of their faces, were stood either side of the chair. An even smaller child sat at the woman's feet. “For our family photo, we just went to the mall,” Luz said, examining the details. "You know, until King got banned for trying to eat that kindergartener." 

The artist had been incredibly skilled, whoever they were. That would be Odalia there in the chair, Luz recognised, wearing a smirk she’d seen on the faces of all three Blight siblings. So that was Alador behind her, a tall, handsome man with light chestnut brown hair and a widow's peak. To either side would be the twins, looking as serious as Luz had ever seen them. Sat in front of her mother, the painted Amity looked sombre, as though at a funeral not a portrait sitting. All of the Blight children were painted in matching outfits, formal dresses, emerald green, mauve and mulberry. “You’ve got the same hair as your dad,” Luz said. “But you’ve got your mom’s face shape. That’s pretty cool! I mostly look like my mom.” Amity turned and strode away quickly from the portrait without speaking, moving down the hall. As Gus and Willow turned to follow her, Luz stopped to stare at the painting a moment longer. 

Both Alador and Odalia had the golden eyes of their children. Gazing up at them, Luz squinted. From here, the way the light hit the paint, they almost seemed to shine the way a real eye might. She tried to deconstruct the technique, work out how it was done so she could re-use it later. When she shifted her head, the eyes seemed to follow her around the room. She took a breath, looked away to call after the group. In the corner of her vision, Alador’s painted eyes seemed to blink. 

She jolted back around; the painting hadn’t moved. She ran her hand down her forearms, feeling goosebumps. As she tried to catch up with the others, she couldn’t shake the feeling of someone staring at her back. 

They'd gotten further ahead than she'd realised - or she'd been staring at the painting longer than she'd thought. She reached the end of the hall and found she had to climb up another set of stairs, and then another. Despite being able to hear her friends just ahead, she couldn't catch up and a cold sensation was running up her spine. The hallway stretched out so far that she found herself sprinting, trying to reach the low voices of the others and they seemed to disappear into the distance. She tripped and scrambled, feeling like prey chased by some massive predator. Pushing herself to her feet, Luz threw herself through a doorway looking for any sort of safety, out of breath.

The scene she fell into was blessedly normal.

“Your room is bigger than some apartments,” Gus was saying, standing in the center of a neat bedroom. There was a single bed in one corner, a desk beside it, posters on the walls of what looked like the USA Women's ice hockey team, the English women's rugby team, a highlighted and annotated schedule that broke her day down between studying, studying some more, studying even more than that, classes and sports, and a calendar of cute cats that hung on the wall. September had a cat with huge eyes gazing out of the photo, resting its little head on a ball of twine. “How come there’s nothing in it?”

Luz slumped against the doorway, breathing hard, glad to be among the others. She forced herself to smile, trying to shake off the feeling of fear still clinging in her chest. Swinging one arm over Gus’s shoulder, she reached for one of the books on Amity’s desk, disturbing something beneath it. She blinked for a moment, recognising the style of binding. A sketchbook? “Hey, you draw?”

“I  _ don’t _ ,” Amity snatched up the sketchbook, red faced, sliding it under the pillow of her bed. “I thought your team were here to look for ghosts!”

“We are!” Luz turned the book she was holding over. “Hey, this is one of the Azura books! I’ve got all of these at home!”

“Including the movies,” Willow said, raising her eyebrows at Amity a few times. That was weird. Luz decided she’d ask what that meant later. “And the little known OVA. And the Switch adventure game...”

Amity made eye contact with Willow, and spun on her heel, arms folded. “They’re good books,” she said, voice strained. 

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Luz agreed. “You’ve got some really good books here. The Price of Salt, Fingersmith, I heard good things about those. Hey, is this one of the Fire Emblem games?”

“They’re...they’re strategy games. It’s basically chess!”

“I remember these,” Gus examined the case as though it were a clue. “Aren’t they full of underdressed anime swordswomen?”

“You can also play an underdressed anime swordswoman and marry the other underdressed anime swordswomen,” Willow noted. There was a strange smile on her face.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Amity began pushing them out, face very red. "You’ve seen enough of my room!” She propelled them out, hands on Luz and Gus’s backs. Willow followed behind, grinning widely. 

“Is that your bathroom?” Gus asked, jerking a thumb at an ornate oaken door.

“ _ Keep moving _ .”

“The view is great from up here,” Luz said, managing to shake off Amity’s insistent pushing. She peered out of one of the windows cut into the wall, and saw the town laid out below them, the lights of the drive-in movie place, the flat roof of the bowling alley. When she leaned, she thought she could spot the alley off mainstreet where Eda’s shop and her apartment were. “Hey, I think my place is somewhere down there.” 

Amity looked over her shoulder, following her pointing. “That’s where the weird shop is, isn’t it? The tarot one?”

“Oh yeah, Eda does tarot in the back,” Luz started walking again, following the corridor. “It’s also a pawn shop. I think she used to be a fence, but she swears that’s over and done with. And she sells her own homemade remedies. Mom is...less enthused about that part.”

“Hm,” Amity said, following. “I know it. It's a small shop. Ed and Em dragged me there so that they could have their fortunes told once.”

“Yeah, it’s small, but it's ours, you know?” Luz paused. “Or, well, it's my moms's.”

Amity fell into step with her. “Do they both work in the shop?”

“Nah, it's Eda's baby, really. She owned it before she met us, but my mom bought up half when she and Eda settled down. My mom's a nurse in the emergency room. It's suuuper tough, but she does a really good job. She got an award last year!”

“We're very proud of her,” Willow said, to remind Amity that she and Gus were still there. Amity's shoulders shot up to her ears and she strode on ahead. Willow nudged Luz with an elbow, and Luz took her arm.

“This was my father's study,” Amity said, pushing open a door on the next floor. Gus went through his backpack for an EMF meter while Luz stepped inside. Willow, however, took a few steps back. 

“Bad memories,” she said, with a faint smile when Luz gave her a questioning look. 

“I suppose you...only saw this place when we were in trouble.” Amity looked away, cheeks pink. “Things have changed since.”

“Hey!” Luz pointed at one of the walls. “There's a flag in here that matches your socks!”

Amity went even redder. “It's my study now,” she added by way of explanation.

“So many books on law,” Gus said, wide eyed as he flicked through a tome of corporate law intricacies and felt immediately exhausted and morally compromised. “Wow! How do you stay awake in here?”

“Hey!” Luz pointed above the ornate mahogany desk, a grin of recognition on her face. “Lilith! You've got a poster of Lilith up there!”

There was a poster here of a severe looking woman with black hair, tied back in a sharp bun. She was glaring down her nose at the camera, a stack of paper under her arms, the steps of a courthouse behind her, Steve her paralegal holding a coffee with her name on it beside her. She was scowling as though she'd just lost a case, but Luz knew better; she had a good idea of who'd taken that photo, given that a smaller version was framed above her own mantle at home.

“Yes. Lilith Clawthorne, of Clawthorne and Partners. How do you know her?” Amity sounded as surprised as she looked, big golden eyes taken off guard.

“She's my aunt! Her little sister is my mom, Eda!” Luz punched the air. “And she's also my lawyer! Whenever things go wrong legally she makes ‘em all better!”

“...Huh.” Amity looked back at the poster, rubbing her chin. “How often do you need a lawyer?”

“ _ So _ often.” Luz ran her fingers over the spines of leather bound legal texts. Some of these were new, many old. When she pulled one out to flick through it, she found post-it notes sticking out, notes on each one written so small she could barely make them out. That was Amity's handwriting, she knew it from how crazy neat it was. There were notes on every page, and on every page of the next book she checked too. “You seem like you're working pretty hard towards it.”

“It's important to me. It's a goal I've set. I don't intend to miss it.” Amity said, jaw set. Luz's eyebrow rose slightly. Sometimes she thought she saw the mask fall, the exhausted person below the façade. Amity Blight, genius, was more Amity Blight, obsessive worker. All of the things in her life that might be entertaining seemed to have been pushed out of sight, treated like an embarrassment. Instead she seemed to be forcing herself to take on more than Luz imagined was healthy.

“I didn't know you wanted to be a lawyer,” Willow said, quietly. “I thought you wanted to be an artist.”

It hadn't seemed possible for Amity to get redder, but she did. “When I was  _ six.  _ This is my new plan,” there was an edge of insistence in her voice, an attempt to convince someone. Insistence. Not conviction. “I can join the family business as a lawyer. An artist can't help.”

“What! That's not true!” Luz threw her arm around her shoulders. Amity, again, gave her a look that fell between confused and horrified. “Being an artist helps people! You're giving them a window into the world, representing them, making them feel loved and giving them stuff to care about! Artists have some of the most important jobs in the universe! They shape the way society sees itself!”

Amity slipped out from under her arm. “Being a lawyer is the best path for me,” she said, firmly. “Let’s move along.”

Willow, still outside the study, was frowning, cocking her head to one side. “Is the wind getting stronger?” 

All four of them paused where they were, listening, hearing the way the wind was beginning to batter against the house. A high whistling noise, the sound of debris being picked up and hurled at the walls as though by some malevolent creature. Usually Luz liked the wind, when it beat around outside and the walls of her home made her feel warm and protected. Here, she thought she heard the walls whispering with the wind conspiratorially as though sharing where they were, where they could be found. Outside it looked like the trees in the orchard were swaying dangerously, the foliage shifting. “That’s not going to be fun to drive home in.”

“Don’t look at me,” Amity said, stepping out of the study as gravel was lifted from the driveway and slammed into the glass window, making Gus, who'd been staring out of it, fall back. “You’re not sleeping over.”

Gus was uncharacteristically quiet as they followed. Luz cast a glance at him, but he shook his head when she opened her mouth. They kept moving, down another set of stairs and to a floor with thick carpets rolled out over the corridors. There were paintings hung up at occasional intervals here, pastoral scenes of what looked like some European countryside. Luz paused by one, walked backwards a few steps to the previous painting. “Hey, are these all one scene?”

“When put together they create a larger painting,” Amity confirmed, continuing to walk. "It's of a village on the edge of a forest somewhere."

“They always creeped me out,” Willow murmured to Gus and Luz. Gus seemed oddly silent, barely paying attention, eyes on his feet. 

Luz stared into the paintings, walking between two of them. A rolling field, a forest at its boundaries. She squinted. If she closed one eye and squeezed the other half shut, she could almost see a figure in the trees, matching her step for step as she walked between the paintings, popping out of the frames. She shuddered, running to catch-up with the others.

“My mother and father’s room,” Amity said, gesturing to a door. “In accordance with their will, the doors remain shut.”

“You’ve never been tempted to open it?” Luz asked, grabbing Willow’s arm as she caught up with them. Willow patted her, seeming to recognise her nervousness.

“No. We’ve plenty of rooms,” Amity said, with a shrug. In the silence that stretched out, they could hear the wind singing through the drafty spots in the house, a low howl. Gus leaned forward to peer out of one of the thin windows cut into the hall. “What else do you need to see?”

“Where are we?” Luz paused. “In relation to the ground floor, I mean.”

“Above the kitchen,” Amity folded her arms, looking away. Luz felt her brain ticking, thinking of the creaking, the sound of movement above them last night. 

Was there something behind this locked door? 

Some _ one _ ?

“Can we go?” Gus asked, suddenly, just as Luz was weighing her options around attempting to peek into the room.

“Huh?” Luz looked back at him, nonplussed. “You wanna-?

“Can we go?” He asked again. “Please?”

Luz reached for his hand. He squeezed her fingers, and she noticed his palms were sweaty. All of his jovility had slid away, and his entire body was stiff. “Sure. Willow, Amity, is that cool?”

“Fine by me.” Amity began to stalk back down the hall. 

Gus reached out to grab her arm. “You should come too.” He swallowed, eyes wide. “Please?” A silence spread between them. Amity shook her head. “Please?” He asked again.

“I’ll go to my sister’s,” she said after a moment, “If it’s so important to you. But I’ve no interest in spending more time with you three.”

Gus let out a breath, shoulders falling in relief. “Okay. That’s good. Thanks, Amity.” 

The atmosphere only seemed to grow heavier as they crossed back across the maze of the house. Several times, Luz thought they’d doubled back on themselves, passed the same rooms over and over. It seemed to take far longer to reach the hall with the horrible portrait than it had been to come from there. Once they reached the hall, Gus walked quickly to the door, looking like a wound spring. He shoved his feet into his shoes without trying to put them on properly, walking outside to the driveway. He stared down the gravel drive until the girls had gotten out, and then stepped up to the cars, waiting to be the last person to open the door and get in, keeping an eye out to make sure the girls were in first.

In the backseat, he breathed out, one long exhale. He shivered, leaning forward to wrap arms around both Luz and Willow in the front seats. “You okay?” Luz asked, patting his forearm. "You're been looking super unwell."

He shook his head. “This is gonna sound stupid,” he said. “But I...when we were up there, I kept...seeing stuff in the big backyard.”

“Stuff?” Willow sounded concerned. She shifted gears as they came down the road, trying to give Gus as much of her attention as possible 

Gus frowned, looking for the right way to explain things. Finally, in a small voice, he admitted, “I thought I heard a man saying stuff. Like chanting? Pretty intimidating. I figured it was the window, but,” He swallowed. “When I looked down, I could see a masked man in the yard looking up at us, right at us. I looked for him again, I figured I could point him out and ask Amity if she had a gardener or whatever, but when I looked back, he was gone. There was no way he could’ve covered the ground to the trees or get out of view in the split second I looked away! But he just...disappeared.”

None of them moved. A sudden tension overcame all three as they considered those words, picturing what had happened. Luz slid her finger to her phone and hit play on the first Beyonce song she could find. As Formation began playing in the car, Willow finally turned the key, sending the ignition rumbling, and drove out. They all watched the windows as they left, looking for something that none of them could name.


End file.
